Construction works to a roadway linking the town of Mabaruma with the fishing/farming community of Morawhanna on the Barima River in the North West District,is progressing and residents have expressed appreciation to the administration for re-establishing the vital roadway.

According to reports from Mabaruma,the contractor has already completed more than half of the length of the roadway which is being constructed by International Imports and Supplies contracting firm.

Mabaruma town councilor, Ian Baird told the Guyana Chronicle that residents of Morawhanna and the Smith Creek community will be the main beneficiaries of the road link.

He said, when completed, residents of the area would be able to utilize the roadway to ferry their produce with less hassle to the market at the business community of Kumaka.

“I think school children especially would be the main beneficiaries,” Baird said.Residents have noted that the roadway will once again create opportunities for persons to conduct business in the area.

Morawhanna, which is located some 6 hours by boat from the Venezuela border, is an official port-of-entry for vessels and persons must check-in with the authorities there , including immigration, the coastguard and police, before proceedings onward into the region.

The Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) ferry usually makes its first stop at Morawhanna on the way to Mabaruma from Georgetown.

On Friday, Baird commended the government for providing a boat to residents at Morawhanna to aid in the transportation of school children from the area to nearby schools. He said the residents had complained that the boat which they utilized in the months gone by, became faulty.

He said contact was immediately made with Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Karen Cummings who pays a special interest in the welfare of residents of far-flung communities in the Mabaruma sub-region. Through her intervention, a boat was procured for the residents.

Morawhanna was once a populated community with thriving businesses,however, during the late 1990s, the sea-defence infrastructure in the area was eroded by the nearby Barima River due to poor maintenance.

This led to the area being neglected by the authorities and persons noted that remnants of an excavator, which was taken to the area to rebuild the sea-defence, is testimony to the community being left on its own.

In a Kaieteur News article of August 2009, residents reported that the closure of a fishing complex which many depended on for storage, fell by the wayside.

The complex had also provided desperately needed employment for several in the village and it was the off shoot of persons mooring at the complex given that they would conduct business at the few shops that exists, the report said.

Flooding which was attributed to damaged sluice doors was also seen as one of several factors which led to the community’s decline.